A list...

...because I've been so blah today and mostly lying around, here is a list of everything I've consumed in the last 48 hours. In bold are the items that are actually somewhat solid.

2 disgusting homeopathic lozenges
1 strepsosil lozenge
1/2 pack of cherry lifesavers
two jello cups (one raspberry, one wildberry)
2/3 package raspberry jello with marshmallows
4 carrot sticks, 3 cauliflower stalks, 1 mushroom and 4 sugar pea pods
one can of mango nectar (hey, I've got five more! What am I waiting for??)
1 container of wonton soup
1 peanut butter and banana wholegrain bagel
several cups of tea with various additives of honey and/or lemon juice
2 scrambled eggs on toast, 1 strip of bacon
1 diet grapefruit pop
1 glass of orange juice
2 glasses of water
6 cold fx pills

The idea of eating anything solid absolutely nauseates me. The thought of trying to put something that might be sharp or cause anguish to my throat in any way makes me to want to curl up in a ball and hide under the covers. As far as illnesses go, this one probably isn't as bad as many that I've had, but I've been so bleah about eating that I'm feeling a lot lousier than I really should. *whine*

And I'm ridiculously twitchy. I want to ride my bike, but I'm having trouble staying upright on my chair.

Oh, and I'm a little grumpy due to my throat constantly bothering me...using the word ridiculously has reminded me of the words that annoy me when they're spelled incorrectly.
-ridiculous NO "E"
-definite/definitely NOT DEFIANTELY NO "A"
-synopsis vs synapses (I get a lot of hits for people looking for the synapses of various books. Please, for the love of all that is holy...READ THE DAMNED BOOK YOURSELF, or else learn how to spell your search terms. Quite often I get the name of the novel spelled wrong too [which means that it's spelled incorrectly someplace in my archives...but that was probably a cut and paste.])

Wow. I think I must be feverish after all that. Ok. Good night.

Still ill

Some description of how icky I feel. You may skip that bit.










I feel so much better than I did yesterday. Yesterday at Gigabyte, I nearly passed out, then nearly threw up. Then nearly both. My neck (not just my throat) was sore. I've lost 4 lbs in three days because the idea of eating makes me want to retch...and also because my throat is/was so raw that putting anything non-liquid down it just seems like a really dumb idea.











Ok, now back to me, not just my symptoms.



Dave came over yesterday to help me with a huge project that I needed to finish before last night...lesson planning for the next six weeks. I had to have 10-15 lessons done for each of the six weeks. Final total...ninety one lessons. Ye gods. We finished a three week unit on plants yesterday, which was a lot of fun. The kids seemed really into it, asking me where they could find plant books in the library at school, and asking me if they could borrow my plant books.

We've been keeping track of the different kinds of fruit we ate on a big wall chart, which they loved. Two of them at different times reminded me of a fruit that we didn't have up there, which wouldn't be such a cool thing, except that we were going by the botanical meaning of "fruit" which means "the part of the plant that holds the seeds". Hence, not only are apples, oranges and grapes fruit, but tomatoes and pumpkins are as well. Anyway, one of my grade one boys, F, reminded me that we didn't have cucumbers on the list. YES!! It got through to them!!! I have to say, that was one of the coolest moments in teaching. They took something that I taught them and related it to something else that they were familiar with to come to a correct conclusion. Totally spontaneously. Woo HOO!

Ow, my throat.

Apparently the obsessive handwashing failed to protect me from the unkillable little kid germs. About thirty seconds after my last student was picked up, my throat started hurting, until by the time I got home, I was in exquisite agony. Some tea with lemon and honey, and several lozenges later, I'm about ready to crash.

How exciting was that?

(PS: photos are forthcoming...I just need to get my film developed...still. Hopefully this weekend. And hey! This way I get people visiting in the hopes of anticipated content.)

(PPS: I'm not going to remember writing this when I get up tomorrow.)

Go See This Movie.

Dave and I went to see

Exercise today: Lucky Number Slevin tonight. WOW. It was such a good movie. Just...amazing. Dave rates it up there as one of his favourite movies now...and I'm thinking that I'm going to be doing the same thing. It's definitely the most enjoyable movie I've watched this year...and that's saying a lot, since I loved Inside Man and V for Vendetta as well.

Now, I need to go to bed.

(subliminal)goseeluckynumberslevin(/subliminal)

Domesticized.

This weekend I made turkey vegetable soup and still have a gallon or so of stock in my freezer. I bought some mixed beans to use as samples for my seed unit and bought a bunch extra (I only needed a small handful) to create turkey bean soup. Then, I wanted some avocado pits to use in the display, and I couldn't WASTE them, so I made homemade guacamole...not to be confused with Whack-a-mole. (And if your brain works the way mine just did, you read that as "walk a moley". *sigh*)

My guacamole recipe: (please note that I'm not a recipe gal...if I cook or do crafty stuff, I like to play with it, so measurements are somewhat...lax. I think I'll post the Accidental Chocolate Mousse recipe to illustrate that.)

Guacamole
3 pitted, scooped and mashed avocados (is there an "e" in there? Like tomatoes and potatoes? Avocadoes?)

1 large tomato, diced

The rest of the lemon juice (probably a tablespoon or so...maybe more)

3-4 cloves of garlic chopped fine

Salt to taste
--------------
Mash together. Serve with chips, and gin and tonic if you're feeling bold. I had school today, so I didn't indulge in the G&T. I'm gonna smell like garlic for days now...I've got days worth of guacamole to eat! :D It's going to go brown on the top...doesn't affect the taste 24 hours later. Try some more lemon juice.

One of my students told me that my hair smelled like chocolate. Considering that she hadn't been close enough to me to smell me, and my shampoo is more like a jujube...I think it was creative licence on her part.

I'll do the mousse recipe later.

Channeling my freakish energy...

Four lesson plans done for next week...three to go.

I worked out for three hours today...karate, and an ep of Buffy while on the bike. What the hell? I should be completely exhausted.

Actually, my brain is exhausted, leading to late night chat sessions that include me saying "My unlickable brain is groggy" and other such whaa??? sayings.

Happy easter everyone. Don't overeat on your bunnies.

...

That sounds naughty...and actually, the word bunny came from another word that was naughty. If anyone's interested, I'll explain the etmology later.

The Spoiled Meme

If you can say yes to forty or more, you're spoiled.

DO YOU HAVE:

(1) your own cell phone
(2) a television in your bedroom
(3) an iPod (not that brand, but I have a broken mp3 player)
( ) a photo printer
(4) your own phone line
(5) TiVo or a generic digital video recorder (on my fancy new computer)
(6) high-speed internet access (i.e., not dialup)
(7) a surround sound system in bedroom
(9) DVD player in bedroom
(10) at least a hundred DVDs (if I count the multi packed DVDs)
(11) a childfree bathroom (since I have no kids...)
( ) your own in-house office
( ) a pool
( ) a guest house
(12) a game room
( ) a queen-size bed or larger
( ) a stocked bar
(13) a working dishwasher (My parents)
(14) an icemaker (My parents)
(15) a working washer and dryer (My parents)
(16) more than 20 pairs of shoes
( ) at least ten things from a designer store (I don't think Mariposa counts)
(17) expensive sunglasses
( ) framed original art (not lithographs or prints)
( ) Egyptian cotton sheets or towels
(18) a multi-speed bike
( ) a gym membership
(19) large exercise equipment at home (ancient exercise bike count?)
( ) your own set of golf clubs
(20) a pool table (My parents)
( ) a tennis court
(21) local access to a lake, large pond, or the sea
(22) your own pair of skis (Value Village x-country...never used)
( ) enough camping gear for a weekend trip in an isolated area
( ) a boat
( ) a jet ski
( ) a neighborhood committee membership
(23) a beach house or a vacation house/cabin (My parents...we have a trailer in a "Campers Country Club")
(24) wealthy family members (My uncle)
(25) two or more family cars (three currently, four when my brother wasn't at sea)
( ) a walk-in closet or pantry
(26) a yard
(27) a hammock (not up, but it is owned)
( ) a personal trainer
(28) good credit
(29) expensive jewelry (one pair of emerald earrings)
( ) designer bag that required being on a waiting list to get
(30) at least $100 cash in your possession right now (Thanks D!)
(31) more than two credit cards bearing your name
(32) a stock portfolio (I bought some Michaels craft store stock while I worked there)
(33) passport
( ) a horse (I used to...not right now...but once I'm working!!!)
( ) a trust fund
( ) private medical insurance
(34) a college degree, and no outstanding student loans (I know...love the bank of Mom and Dad)

Do you:
(35) shop for non-needed items for yourself (like clothes, jewelry, electronics)
( ) at least once a week (not any more...but that's probably a good thing)
( ) do your regular grocery shopping at high-end or specialty stores
( ) pay someone else to clean your house, do dishes, or launder your clothes
( ) go on weekend mini-vacations
( ) send dinners back with (almost) every flaw
( ) wear perfume or cologne
( ) regularly get your hair styled or nails done in a salon (not any more...used to have acrylic nails [for like...three months])
( ) have a job but don’t need the money OR
( ) stay at home with little financial sacrifice
( ) pay someone else to cook your meals (does going out to eat a lot count?)
( ) pay someone else to watch your children or walk your dogs
( ) regularly pay someone else to drive you/take taxis
( ) expect a gift after you fight with your partner (WHA??)

Are you:
( ) an only child
( ) married/partnered to a wealthy person
( ) baffled/surprised when you don’t get your way (I used to be.)
( ) been on a cruise
(36) traveled out of the country
(37) met a celebrity (a couple Canucks...they wouldn't remember me though)
( ) been to the Caribbean
(38) been to Europe
( ) been to Hawaii
( ) been to New York
( ) eaten at the space needle in Seattle
( ) been to the Mall of America
( ) been on the Eiffel tower in Paris
( ) been on the Statue of Liberty in New York
( ) moved more than three times because you wanted to
( ) dined with local political figures
( ) been to both the Atlantic coast and the Pacific coast

Did you:
( ) go to another country for your honeymoon
( ) hire a professional photographer for your wedding or party
(39, 40) take riding or swimming lessons as a child (I'm counting both...and not just because it turns me into spoiled, but because there wasn't a space for "owned a horse when you were a kid")
( ) attend private school
( ) have a Sweet 16 birthday party thrown for you


HA! I KNEW I was a spoiled princess! I told you! I told you! Neener neener...

Oh wait. Probably not necesarily a GOOD thing. But I'm cute, and I'm not a snot, so that makes it ALLLLLL better.

...and now you know.

Easter's date shifts from year to year because the date is determined by a very pagan way...

The first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox.

So the Equinox was on the 20th of March this year...the full moon was tonight...and Sunday is Easter.

Intuitive, isn't it? *eye roll*

Why I Do What I Do

From M, one of my kindergarteners:
"Mithus A...I love thchool. It'th alwayth THO fun!"

*melts into big puddle of goo*

That makes up for the fisticuffs yesterday between A and R. Well...the punch, I mean. I think A was too shocked to do anything.

Oi.

One of my kindergarteners, R, punched another, A, in the face today, giving her a bloody nose. Ye gods...SO GLAD I didn't have to handle it.

This Day in the Life...part deux

As promised...the second installment of my day on the 6th of April. Part one is here.

Some clarification about the previous day: I'm still a student teacher, doing my practicum in a K/1 classroom. I'll be a full teacher at the end of August, assuming I don't do anything too horrendous while on practicum. "Dragon Says" is when I perch my dragon (his name is Phoenix, for those of you playing at home...and he's purple. I'll post a picture later, 'specially for DM. [This has to be the most awkward sentence EVER. {Whee! Triple nested brackets!}]) on my shoulder and say "Dragon Says" instead of Simon Says. Also, I forgot to mention that I checked on the beans we're growing...at least three times before recess. I think I'm more excited about them than some of the kids.

I've been off my cold meisiceine for the last twenty four hours, (despite what the above sentence may indicate) and I'm feeling pretty good. So now, without Further Ado...the at times, excruciatingly detailed...my day.)

1025 cont. I chat with the special needs aide who helps out with one of the girls in my class, while said girl eats her snack before going out for recess. I frantically get stuff prepped for the lesson I'll be teaching in the period before lunch. Oh well. I'll have some time before my lesson to look over stuff so it won't be too bad.

1045 I go down to get the kids from the door after recess. I field the bean watering question by at least three more students on the way up the stairs.

1050-1130 I begin my lesson. First I read them The Keeping Quilt, then show them a gorgeous quilt that my FA had loaned me as a model. One of the girls asks me if I stole it. (??!?!? Whaaa???) We talk a little bit about how in the old days (and now...but I didn't want to get into it.) people used old clothes and traded pieces of cloth around with each other, so someone's quilt may have pieces from ten different people. I explained that that made it very special because you could have nice memories from lots of different places. Then I told them that we would be making a paper quilt and we would be creating our own pieces of "fabric" by colouring with crayons on white paper. We would cut out the pieces from ours that we used, and then put the pieces into a big sharing pile so that other people could use what we didn't need.

I get the student of the day, a very shy, sweet Vietnamese kindergarten girl, to start colouring a piece of paper as I demonstrate how to use the triangle stencil on the paper in the corner. Kids tend to cut out right in the centre, and that would make it so that there wouldn't be enough paper. I use the two pieces of paper that I coloured earlier to make the first three pieces, then use one of the SotD's pieces for the last piece and tape it to the whiteboard. Ta da!

I ask if there are any questions. BAD IDEA. Note to self and anyone working with young children: don't ask generally if there are any questions! Some of the questions I received..."Where did you get the book? Is it from our library?" "Did you steal the book?" (again...wha??? different student this time, too!) "My cousin has a quilt." (That's not a question!!) and of course... "When are we going to water our beans?" (should've seen that one coming...) "Can we use the little stencils?" (Those are for later.)

I hand out paper and fend off the ones who weren't paying attention and try to grab stencils. They happily colour and scribble for twenty minutes, most of the students getting two pieces done, while some methodical ones still have to do some later.

I stop them at 1130 and the kindergartens get ready for hometime, while the grade ones do a lousy job at cleaning up the classroom. My SA stops them from getting their lunch and they do a better job. Whoops. That should have been my job. Oh well. Despite my best efforts, there is one coloured paper with no name on it. I collect the papers and they go on my desk. HOORAY!!! A SUCCESSFUL LESSON!!!

1130 We start lunch a little early (usually at 1210) for the grade ones because we're going on a field trip to a play at one of the high schools. One of the girls doesn't have her lunch because her mom is bringing it at 1210 like normal. Whoops. I guess there wasn't a memo about early lunch. I hope it gets there soon because we're leaving the school at 1230. My teacher reads the K's a story and I let the ones water their beans. FINALLY!!

1200 The grade ones get to go out and play. Before the K's go home, I let them water their beans. FINALLY!! I head to the staff room to gulp my lunch. Lunch is delivered to the student who didn't have any yet.

1220 Students come back in and we get ready to leave.

1230 We start walking to the high school. Ye gods, it's like herding cats! Except cats don't sing "Bingo" eight times in twenty minutes. (B-I-N-G-O...and Bingo was his name-o...yes, I counted. Just wanted you to have it stuck in your head too. It's been in mine since Thursday.) I beg them to sing a different song and they do, but it's one that's as "stick in my head" as the previous one. This time however, it's my fault since it's a song/dance thing that I taught them. I stop three of them from dancing into the street.

1254 We arrive at the high school and take our seats. There is much oohing and ahhing about the fact that our theatre seats have little folding tables, like lecture halls.

105 The play starts. It's a fractured fairy tale and it's totally unsuitable for primary students. It would have been awesome if it hadn't been for elementary kids. The wicked stepmother slaps Cinderella around after making her kneel in front of her in a very Story of O kind of way...the fairy godmother is drunk (and a drag queen, but that part's fine. I thought it was awesome.) Some of the characters laugh hysterically at the fact that the parents of another character are dead...etc. It made me pretty uncomfortable for most of it.

215 The play is over and we head back to school. I spend most of the time trying to get kids to walk in front of me while I bring up the rear for safety. Bingo gets sung another six times. (Had you had it out of your head yet? Sorry...)

234 One of my students was dawdling across the road and is barely halfway across when the light changes to green. I'm 3/4 across and run back to get him and drag him across the road. Heart attack is barely averted.

240 We're back in the classroom and the students work in their writing books until home time.

305 The kids are out the door.

315 I go to the gym to help set up for our Multicultural Potluck. Families will bring in a dish of food from their culture and everyone will share. I'm looking forward to the samosas especially.

430 Setup is finished. I go to my desk and collapse with the third cup of herbal tea of the day and my third cold pill. I write up my lesson plan for the next day so I don't have to do it at home later.

530 To the gym! People are arriving and I help label food for allergies and vegetarian-ness. There's so much food! And samosas!! And moose stew! And...and...!!!

630 Everyone is fed, and now the teachers get to eat. There's still a lot left, but no samosas. Much sadness. I do get some moose stew though...it was really good. I manage to avoid the dessert table and sit down to eat with one of my K's, his mom and grandma. Have a nice chat with them and see a bunch of my students.

700 Start cleaning up with everyone else.

715 Finish cleaning up. I had been prepared to stay until nine, so I'm shocked and amazed. Get the hell out of there with one of my fellow student teachers. I had spent the last 11 hours in the school. Ugh. I'm crashing and feeling like utter crap, cold pill notwithstanding.

800 Get home. Drink Neo-Citran, check my email, read some blogs.

920 Play my guitar for "just one song".

1035 (According to my journal) I start writing in my journal. Stupid. I should've not touched the guitar. :P It's a sickness, I tell you...

Asleep before eleven.

And that was my day. You deserve a prize for getting this far. Write YIMITF (Yes I Made It This Far) in the comments if you actually read the whole thing!!!

Thanks Sheryl for setting this up! It was fun!

Cold meisiceine

My "this day in the life" post will be continued tonight around 8 pm PST. I overbooked myself today and will be out until then. *grumbles* Anyway, sorry for the delay...I'll get on this ASAP!

I did three hours of guitar and singing with my best friend last night, got five hours of sleep last night and I'm about to do five hours of karate. Why do I do this?

Watch the 2004 Peter Pan movie. It's SO good.

A Day in the Life

Every 6th day of the month is the day Sheryl has dubbed "This Day in the Life" day. Or something like that. So today, I was taking mental notes all day as to what I was doing. Here are the results...

0630 Wake up to the country station playing on my clock radio. Yes, this is on purpose, and no it's not to inspire me to get up earlier. I like country. I don't like this song though. *smack snooze*

0639 Wake up again, enough to realize that I feel better, recovering from my cold from yesterday! Yay! Oh. No, wait. I'm still really sick. It was just a temporary euphoria brought on by Neo-Citran hangover. Dammit. *hit snooze*

0648 Debate getting up. *hit snooze*

0657 Wait until the traffic report comes on before getting up.

0702 Realize that I should have been up ten minutes ago. Spring out of bed.

0703 Bathroom, vitamins, ColdFX, weigh myself (167 lbs! Woo!), brush my teeth, get dressed

0713 Eat a banana, take a cold pill, sit down to read an article in the paper

0724 Out the door, four minutes late.

0744 I'm still in Port Moody. I'm gonna be later than I want to be. Bother...te minutes behind schedule.

0745 Realize that my clock is fast. Relax and enjoy my drive. I don't see any bald eagles along the Barnet Highway. :(

0802 Arrive at Gigabyte Elementary, head to my classroom to prep for my lesson.

0804 Check the beans we put in a clear plastic cup so we could see the roots grow. Nothing yet. We just started them yesterday though.

0805 Start prepping for my lesson. We're going to be colouring pieces of paper in lots of designs to cut apart and use as pieces for quilt blocks for a paper quilt. Talk with one of the support workers about how awesome primary grades are because it's just like playing all day! Write the morning message which includes a pattern puzzle for them...red triangle, red square, blue triangle, blue square, black triangle, blank, blank, blue square.

0845 Bell rings I meet the kids at the door. Lots of "Good morning, Mrs. A". They don't really know the difference between Miss, Ms and Mrs. although I've explained briefly. Whatever. "Noisy reading" starts. I let one of the K's read with my stuffed dragon. Dragon gets passed around a bit...learns how to tie his shoes and looks at the pictures of a couple books. Yesterday, he read a dinosaur book. The kids really like him, and they'll read out loud to him so I can listen and see how they're doing. One of the kids fills in the pattern, getting the shapes right, but not the colours. Grrr...speak with her about how she knows she's not supposed to do stuff on the white board unless she's asked permission. I get asked when we get to water our beans. Kids are wiggy because the grade ones are going on a field trip in the afternoon.

0900 Computers. The kids are drawing a picture in KidPix for their older buddies. They interviewed them about their interests and now their picture should reflect that. I go around a lot asking why they're drawing knights and stuff when their buddy said they like Def Jam (whatever that is) and Christmas. Minor crisis as three drawings don't print but we have to leave.

0950 We're back in the room. I get asked when we get to water our beans and I tell them before lunch. I run the calendar time, which is fine. They're still wiggyI get asked when we get to water our beans. I field that question about six more times in the next twenty minutes. They're kind of really excited about their beans. It's very cute. We play "Dragon Says" instead of Simon Says. They're amused. I'm happy that they get to jump around a bit. We do sharing time which is uneventful except for one of the boys hitting himself in the eye when he tries to show off his yo-yo. He then attempts to do it again, presumably without the skull cracking part. Command decision: I take it away from him while he finishes talking about it.

1025 There's a lengthy announcement that messes up my calendar schedule, but I get everyone finished before the recess bell goes.

And now my cold meisiceine had kciked in, so I'm goind to bed. Whoa... TBC tomorrow someimte.

EDIT: Part Two is here!

YEEEHAW!!!!

The Debutaunt is CANCER FREE!!!!! YAY!!!!!!! *hops around like a madwoman*

Knitting Joy!!

Today I was looking for yarn in my mom's stuff when we unearthed several balls of super ugly yellow yarn from the seventies!! Exactly what I need for Jayne hats! And the colour that I have THE MOST TROUBLE finding.

It's a sign I tell you. It's a sign that I'm never going to have my own Jayne hat, ever...because I know of at least two people who want ones of their very own.

Hey, internet. What should I charge for a Jayne hat? They take about five hours (after making two, hopefully they'll start taking less time... ohpleaseohplease!) and a crapload of stress (because in the both I've made, I've had to rip them out about six times each...also see above note about being unable to find the ugly colours) to make. They take roughly a ball and a half of the yarn I use.

Yarn: about $5-10...more if someone wants really good yarn
Time: about 5:00
The sweetest, most cunning hat ever: ??? but not priceless...oh no. I want to put a price on them.

And then my head explodes because I have too many things I want to do all at once.

Boom.

I am an idiot.

I went to a great vegetarian restaurant today, Naam...it's awesome. However, I got in the door and realized I was wearing a suede jacket. To a vegetarian restaurant. Filled with vegetarians. Now the question is...do I feel like an idiot for wearing that jacket, or do I feel like an idiot for feeling self conscious?

In my defense, I didn't know that it was a 100% vegetarian restaraunt until I got in there. But still...

This is cool. Via breebop.